FIGURINES. 



167 



Fig. 26S. — Human figure seated on a stool 

 or metate. Alligator ware. *h 



metate. The hands rest on the shins ; and the feet, which projected over the 

 edge of the seat, have been broken off. The seat itself has four feet. This 

 specimen recalls one from Santo Domingo, illustrated by Fewkes, and points to a 

 relationship between metates and stools. 



A different type of image is reproduced in 

 figure 269, which exhibits a standing masculine 

 figure with short legs, flattened body and elongated 

 face, on which the nose, broken in this instance, 

 continues to be the dominant feature. On the 

 head is the characteristic conical cap met with in 

 the armadillo, as well as in the handled, group 

 of ware. The body and head are both hollow, 

 the latter being supplied with pellets. The ex- 

 ternal auditory opening is marked by a perforation. 

 This specimen is from Jacu and probably represents 

 a water-carrier, as witness the jug borne on the 

 back. The painted decoration is injured by sur- 

 face disintegration due to weathering. There is 

 a red field on the throat and breast reaching down 

 over the abdomen. 



Figurines of animal forms other than those adapted as 

 whistles are not very numerous. Figure 270 represents the 

 armadillo. The attitude suggests the act of burrowing or 

 possibly an attempt to roll up for defense, which has been 

 frustrated by the interposition of a thick bar placed trans- 

 versely across (or through) the stomach and projecting some 

 distance beyond the carapace on either side. The head is 

 depressed, the nose pointing slightly backward and the chin 

 pressed against the chest. The tail, indicated both in the 

 round and by means of a band of black paint, is brought for- 

 ward underneath, applied to the ventral surface. The extremi- 

 ties are sharply flexed, the toes of the forefeet pointed for- 

 ward and those of the hindfeet turned backward (fig. 270 b). 

 The three regions of the slightly raised carapace are quite 

 distinct. The smooth surface of the anterior and posterior 

 sections is given a uniform coat of black paint, while the 

 central region is painted red and grooved so as to bring out 

 in relief three rather wide bands. The transverse bar pass- 

 ing through (or across) the stomach is also painted red. One 

 of the projecting ends of this rod was evidently broken be- 

 fore the red paint was applied, as a coat of it is carried 

 over the uneven surface of the break. Or the break may have occurred while 

 the object was in use and was afterward painted over to match the sur- 

 rounding color. It is, at all events, a case of prehistoric repairing. The part 

 broken off may have been a head for which the opposite end could have 

 served as a tail, since the diameter of the latter is not so great as that of the 



Fig. 269. — Standing mas- 

 culine figure ; from Jacu. 

 Alligator ware. ! /» 



